Will fleeing home be the last resort as the climate changes?

At the last climate talks held under the UN Climate Change Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in Poland in 2013, the term “planned relocation” was removed from the text dealing with a new approach, called the Warsaw International Mechanism, which will consider loss and damage caused by climate change.

“Planned relocation only appears under ‘Adaptation’, which is often interpreted as happening at the national level [within the country],” said Koko Warner, a scientist at the UN University and an author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II, which covers impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.